Kelley Gossler is currently the Director of Bands at Vernon Hills High School where she conducts the concert bands and co-directs the Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Band. Prior to Vernon Hills, she taught at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago Public Schools where she taught beginning through the most advanced concert and jazz bands and served as department chair. Ms. Gossler’s ensembles have regularly performed throughout the city and region at concert and jazz festivals. Her Lincoln Park Jazz Band was the 2023 recipient of the Essentially Ellington Equity and Inclusion Initiative.

She also served as a Chicago Public School Arts Instruction Specialist for the district’s Department of Arts Education where she developed and led district arts professional developments, hosted teachers in her classroom for observation and discussion of teaching practices, and facilitated Communities of Practice for educators. In 2020-2021 Ms. Gossler served as the coordinator and band director of the Roosevelt University Lakers athletic bands.

Gossler earned her master’s of music in wind conducting at Northwestern University studying with Dr. Mallory Thompson and bachelor’s of music education at the University of Colorado at Boulder.